


wear your heart on your cheek

by Quadrantal



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Gen, Irene Adler and her machinations, Irene/Molly Friendship, Sherlock and Janine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-24
Updated: 2014-01-24
Packaged: 2018-01-09 21:13:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1150847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quadrantal/pseuds/Quadrantal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Suffice to say, Molly isn’t having a good day. <i>Irene and her little machinations.</i></p><p>(Where Sherlock is being a dick, stringing along Janine to get information on the school paper's editor-in-chief Magnussen, Molly notices, and Irene notices that Molly notices. And takes care of it.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	wear your heart on your cheek

**Author's Note:**

> Highschool!lock where Molly and Irene are friends. Inspired by my friend [LMPandora’s art](http://lmpandora.tumblr.com/post/74378110273/me-and-my-friend-the-quadrantal-were-talking-about) (WHICH IS AMAZING YOU HAVE TO SEE IT) and all those conversations which made me crave for Mollrene. Title is from “How To Be A Heartbreaker” by Marina and the Diamonds.
> 
> Unbeta-ed and cross-posted in a lot of places lol

Molly pushes the macaroni around her plate and rereads the paragraph for the fifth time. It has something to do with postmortem decay rates and degenerating myomeres, something that must be remembered for her advanced biology exam later that week, but the words refuse to nest in her head and trickle away as she moves on to the next sentence. She sighs and her eyes flicker across the cafeteria, lingering a beat longer on the lean figure by the corner of the room smiling too bright at Janine the cheerleader’s joke.

She chews on her bottom lip and shutters her gaze to her textbook until the noise dulls to a slow droning buzz that abruptly ceases, a sudden stoppered waterfall. Molly knows without being told just who it is striding across the floor, attracting attention like bees to nectar, that even the couple by the cafeteria corner watches with rapt attention.

“Molly,” Irene murmurs, and a football player at the neighbouring table hurriedly stands up to pull back a chair for her. She slides into the plastic seat like it’s a throne made of cast iron and gold, crossing her legs with a delicate flourish.

She is so close Molly can smell the faint trace of her perfume, bergamot and blackberry, and when she turns in her seat her elbow nudges Molly’s with the slightest pressure.

“Hello, Irene. I didn’t see you during Maths today—” She stops, and does a double-take, eyeing the unbuttoned blouse, the undone tie, the messy bun — a different look in the Irene Adler repertoire that makes her all too aware of the abrupt thumping in her chest.

Irene unfailingly notices, if her upturned scarlet lips are any indication, and she lowers her eyes before gazing across the room beneath her lashes. Molly follows the direction of her look towards the end of the room — to Janine who tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, pink flush apparent even from a distance, and to Sherlock who—

Sherlock looks absolutely _livid_.

Irene raises her hand, tips her fingers delicately, and Janine cannot take her eyes away.

Molly huffs and returns her attention to her biology text. Irene has a tendency of doing that — attracting people’s attention with a few, well-placed gestures — that Molly thinks she should be used to it by now. Except today makes her toes curl and her chest tight, because it’s enough that she saw her long-time fancy snogging a cheerleader by the broom closet, this blatant flirtation is rankling her nerves as well.

“Stop flirting with her. You’re going to give her a bloody heart attack in the middle of the cafeteria, Irene.”

“Oh? Someone’s jealous, I see.” Irene finally takes her eyes off Janine and looks at Molly, properly looks at her, the corner of her mouth kicking up higher.

Molly presses her lips together but cannot keep the flush that creeps up her neck.

“You needn’t bring your claws out, Molly. I’m merely dealing with an extraneous variable.”

From the periphery of Molly’s vision, Sherlock stands up and storms out of the cafeteria. Janine takes one last, lingering look at Irene before hurrying after him.

“And I consider it taken care of. Come now,” She places a hand on the table top, her lacquered red nails brushing against the side of Molly’s little finger.

“Let’s have lunch.”


End file.
